The Duck and Boat Races

One of the traditions of our Family Reunions is the "reunion shirt".  We passed them out on Friday night so that we could all wear them on Saturday.  Here is some of our "models" during breakfast.

Thad and Tana Giberson)

Duncan Giberson

Jena--she had a big smile almost all
of the time. Cousins are one of her most
favorite things.

After an excellent breakfast, we began our boat building event.  We randomly divided people into teams who all had their own color of sails. (Thanks to Cindy Anderson and the guy at her work who drinks so much Dr. Pepper every day for all of the bottles!)

Dad with the "Original Giberson"

Lynette

Kylie Ipson

The designs of this boat are based on a cub scout regatta.  For the cub scouts and other places we have done it since then we ran the boats in rain gutter sections filled with water. Makes sense, in some ways, Family reunion is like a pack meeting in cub scouts--a time to be silly and enjoy being together!

Kara Ipson Wilford with her daughter, Morgan

 Team Green with blue

Owen Neerings, Mike, Duncan, Megan Ipson, Jordan Hearns, Todd, Tillie, Anna

 

 

Yellow Team

Scott, Lynette, Thad, Lance Johnson, Lora, Kayley, Linda, Tana
in front: Paul with Allison, Randee with Sophee

                                       
 Pink team

Ryan Giberson, Dad, Valerie, Kyle Giberson, Lisa Neerings with Allison, Jena

 Team Orange

Rick, Tommy Willford with Parker, Ben, Kara with Morgan, Jordan and Sarah
In front: Paul Giberson with Max

 

The Very Green Team

Audrey, Landi Ipson Johnson, Scotty, Daniel Hearns, Lance Ipson, Kylie Ipson

Then we headed to the nearby stream to try out the boats.  Gary and I had checked out the stream the day before and while it was beautiful, it didn't have very much open space along the banks to watch the race and after the bridge there was a fishing pond where we were afraid many of the boats could get stuck in the middle plus disturb the fisherman.  We knew the ducks would work great but we decided to take the boats to and try them out.  So glad we did---playing in a creek on a hot day is just FUN!

Checking out the stream--

Grandchildren Duck Race---hard to see them but they are the little colorful things in the stream.

Megan, Gary, Scott G. and I think Lisa are catching the ducks with the nets

Look at beautiful the surroundings are.  Valerie watching from the bridge.  There were cabins up the mountain and we had a few cars stop on the bridge to watch the action as our boats and ducks traveled the stream.  I guess it isn't often that you see 48 people racing homemade boats in this stream.

 

 Here is our "owners" box with Lea, Karla and Dad---

We finally developed a system to launch boats and Megan and Landi handled that duty for awhile.  They had cold feet along with our catchers after playing in the water.

Jordan and Lisa collecting the boats from the catchers.

Gibersons are everywhere cheering for their teams........... and taking pictures

Mike found a quite spot on the side to watch---and keep boats
from getting caught on that side

Sometimes some of the boats were able to make the whole trip right side up with their sail high in the sky.....

Tillie

 My dad's youngest grand-child Tillie Giberson and his oldest great-grandchild Audrey Neerings...

They are 2 months apart in age.
Audrey is older.

Kayley Giberson

 Mike takes a net to help with the catching of the boats and ducks...

Thanks Family for being willing to play in the stream with me!

You are the best!